Creative endeavors

Decorating and creating a beautiful space has always been a pleasure of mine. As I have moved from room, to dorm, to bigger dorm, to apartment, to house, to different house and now to another apartment, I have gotten to decorate a lot of spaces. It is totally different now that I am married and the primary decision maker when it comes to our home's aestethics.

We have lived in the apartmenr for 6 months now, and to this day I am still making adjustments. The bulk of things got figured out after 2 months, but as we have been gifted new decor, gone through the holidays and found things we needed, I have been constantly tweaking.

Throughout it all, my main goal was to make our space feel homey and peaceful. I have recently watched an episode of "Tidying Up" after hearing about it everywhere and I liked and disliked parts of the KonMari Method.

Let's start with dislikes so we end on a good note:1. Not everything I need sparks joy, and most things that spark joy for me are not things I need. For example, I need my black pants for work...but they do not spark joy. I need measuring cups and can openers, etc. but it isn't practical or financially advisable for me to have only joy-sparking household items. Also, as an artist, I have a lot of paintings, pottery, etc...I have had to be creative in making some of it useful otherwise my house would be a chaotic art gallery. On that note, I have also learned to curate some of our decor. Since I have made a lot of work that sadly has not sold yet, I do keep a portfolio and go through it when I want to redo a room. This is fun for me since I get to look back on what I have made and not spend money redecorating. ​2. I cannot tackle everything at once. That's basically moving again and I already keep like items in the same location...So I much prefer to organize by room. Also, it is much easier for me to get rid of 3 items of clothing every month than garbage bags full all at once. This is a practice I started 4 years ago and my closet is very selective now. I also go through my paper items every month. I just rather not let it get so out of hand I need to take a weekend to organize my home.

3. I believe we should be good stewards of our things but not thank them. Our belongings are meant to serve us, and while I am thankful to God for the things I have...I am not going to thank my sweater for keeping me warm. That is its purpose. I want my focus to not be on my belongings. This is why I LOVE the Cozy Minimalist and the focus being on items serving a purpose. That purpose can be to create a peaceful or joyful place, but our things serve many other purposes, too.

Things I like:

1. Containers....This idea is amazing. It is practical, it serves so well, and it helps create more beautiful spaces. I have gotten so many containers this week and reorganized our apartment so that our practical but less pretty things are neatly stored.

2. Focusing on keeping what you like instead of getting rid of things you don't. The Cozy Minimalist does this, too. I like the positivity that is behind this. It is less about punishment and more about self-care when we keep only the things we need or like best. Our lives are crazy full and material stuff is not what I want to focus on...which is often the case when you have too many things to clean and organize.

3. Folding Method...so I cannot say I like this for all my clothes, but I do for pants, tshirts, leggings and sweaters. I can see all my clothes now! Not only is that more practical, it looks better!

I will stop there. Bottom line...I like it when beautiful and practical work together. Order is good. Order is often aestetically pleasing. So when it comes to my things, I like to think of order as being beautiful.